Next stop on the culinary train around the world is Cuba! October 10th is celebrated in Cuba as their Independence Day, as it commemorates the beginning of the war of independence against Spain in 1868, known as the Ten Years' War.
I made one of Cuba's national dishes, Moros y Cristianos, which translates to Moors and Christians, symbolized by the black beans and white rice. The dish is also sometimes referred to as congri, though some consider them separate dishes entirely. The main recipe I used refers to it as congri.
It starts with veggies for the sofrito. Onion, garlic, and bell pepper are sauteed until soft, then comes some cumin and oregano.
Meanwhile, a pot of black beans has been simmering on the stove. Once cooked, the beans are drained and the cooking liquid reserved, which is then mixed with a bit of vinegar and water.
The rice is added to the sofrito and stirred until mixed well. The rice is cooked in the pot with the sofrito for a couple minutes until nice and toasty.
And then the delicious bean juice is added. Mmm, bean juice.
This mixture is simmered until all the cooking liquid is absorbed by the rice. The result is nice fluffy rice infused with all the flavors of the sofrito and black beans.
The beans are then carefully mixed in with everything else.
I served this with some lime wedges on the side and a bit of hot sauce on top. The hot sauce is not traditional, especially since I used Valentina, a Mexican hot sauce, but I felt it needed something a little more as a main dish. This is probably eaten alongside some kind of meat, but since this was the star, I felt it was a little boring if I didn't doctor it up a little bit.
Of course I couldn't do Cuba without making mojitos. This classic Cuban cocktail is a mix of white rum, lime, mint, sugar, and a splash of soda.
I didn't get good pictures of the process, or even the end result, but it's a mojito. You know what they look like. I also don't remember exactly where I got the recipe that I used, but it was pretty pretentious. Apparently there is a right way to muddle the mint, and it's not with the lime juice as many recipes call for. You're supposed to muddle the mint by itself to release the oils, then mix with lime juice and sugar (or simple syrup). Then you add your ice, rum, and club soda. I did it the "right" way the first time, then for the second one (I had to use up the mint...) I just muddled it all together. I couldn't tell the difference.
I've added the recipe below that is most similar to the one I used for the mojito. I also used a Wayback Machine link for the recipe for congri/moros y cristianos, because it's from the New York Times which is behind a paywall, so if you do want to use that recipe that's the easiest way to view it.
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